Look, stop fucking with Willie Nelson. So he likes to drink. So he likes to smoke weed--that sounds like any number of my relatives and friends (and me at various points in my life). The guy is a musical genius--he's written I don't know how many fantastic songs and can play an acoustic guitar like nobody's business.
Look, if that dickless, brainless, spineless puke of a racist wanna-seemlika-politically correct do-gooder despite a past of incessant bigotry and erudite blowhardiness from the great state of West Virginia can have his own highway named after him, then surely we can give a stretch of it to the guy who wrote Always on My Mind.
Look, I've got copies of the Nag Hammadi books that were banned from the collection of writings that were eventually edited into The Bible and most of those writings are of a completely different Jesus than the one that is sold in most churches across the land. That's why I think that The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantakis is one of the most important spiritual works of written art ever produced. Even translated from its original greek, this book is an absolute love poem for the concept of the Christ, who gives up a mortal pleasure and existence to take the sins of the world upon his shoulders like Avalokiteshera and Quan-Yin the Buddah of inexhaustible compassion.
Anyway, I love The DaVinci Code and all these religious freaks who believe their religious metaphors to be historical facts are really just angry because the story is more interesting than the same old they've been hearing about Jesus for decades now. Look, if a fiction book is enough to make you question your faith then you probably don't have it anyway.
Look, let's acknowledge it--Peter Jackson made New Zealand into one of the world's cultural epicenters of quality film-making and storytelling. New Zealand is already beating American film in terms of quality and production. Americans will only fall farther and farther behind artistically if the corporate stranglehold on film production, and commercial art in general, is not removed completely.
George Lucas is an independent film maker, ladies and germs--the most successful one in history, might I add. So if I, as an artist, are going to follow a business model, why would I not follow the most rewarding one in terms of both creativity and financing. Not only would I be loving what I do but would be reaping an amazing reward for simply telling people stories that they, intrinsically, already know.
Here's a Jedi lesson for the day: Find your masters in life, pick their brains until they're empty and then move on to their masters. Soon, you will be a master yourself and others will be coming to pick your brain. But don't get caught up in the delusion of being a master, though, because a true master is always the best student first and continues that way until the very end.
Hmph, told you the straight up dope shizz, I have. Hmph (This was supposed be a Yoda imitation in print. How did I do?)
Look, unless you are a trust fund baby who has grown up with a silver spoon in your mouth, you have to start at dead broke and build your worth (and hence your wealth) from there. The point here is that when politicians speak about The Poor as a social class instead of a point in the financial evolution of an individual citizen, they are just being ignorant. But when they begin basing policy decisions on this half-thought ridiculous throwback to Marxism that both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of today, you have crossed the line into the criminal and tyrannical.
So, you politicians had best be wising up quickly to the fact that American citizens are getting real tired of hearing about how much we should be depending on a centralized government to provide justice in our lives and in the lives of others. We create justice with our individual choices; the Founding Fathers understood this to be common sense and it's about time their distant sons and daughters wise up and play the game right.
I would like to ask my fellow citizens to read the long essay and masterpiece of world literature The Law by Frederic Bastiat; I promise you that all will become clear...Bastiat wrote this gem of logic on his deathbed--where a man is always his most honest.
This finger-pinching incident was one of the only times that I have experienced true panic as a parent. I have swept my finger down my child's throat on at least two occasions without hesitation. I saw what was happening and took immediate steps to save my son's life--those classes at the hospital paid off and I highly recommend them to any new parents.
But at this particular time, I was sitting in a high backed office type chair that had a reclining function. Well, my son got his finger stuck in the mechanism and when I leaned forward, it pinched his fing between two flat pieces of metal converging on each other with a lot of force.
We had no idea how to help him and I almost literally cried in frustration because my child was suffering and I didn't immediately know how to help him. I imagine this is probably just a small incident of a general parental concern over time--as our children grow up and prepare to enter "the real world," they are leaving the comfort zones that we have built for them and using their unique talents and experience in directions that we may have never considered for their lives--but that joy also comes with an equal concern. Taking risks is, well, risky and no one wants their child to be in a situation that they can't help them out of; so, heed the lesson of the pinched finger and watch.
I'm a big believer in Virgin Olive Oil. I even make my grilled cheese sandwiches in olive oil instead of butter. I only use whole wheat bread, throw a little Lawry's in the oil for both sides and end up with a cheesy crouton sandwich that is acceptable on The Abs Diet (the only diet that intelligent people follow).
Let me first say that I used to write for this paper and the editors sucked then. My editor was constantly changing my titles to completely ridiculous half-phrases that reflected poorly on the content. But I sucked it up and I am now where I am now because of that and they are where they are because of the choices they made.
The final lesson here is: Don't fuck with the Blogosphere because it's where the collective consciousness of mankind is essentially discovering the right questions to begin asking.
Make no mistate about it, watching the Internet emerge as a collective pool of information access is really watching the collective brain of humankind finally being given actual form and substance. But without an equal balance of spirituality and artistic aesthetic, we will each become Darth Vaders of our sad and burnt little worlds.
Why Christians and Jews Still Cry (Short Story by Joshua Minton)
by Uncle Josh
Josh reads his short story "Why Christians and Jews Still Cry," which earned him a little controversy when he read it during his public BFA Senior Thesis reading. (16:16)
Look, I want to thank Matt Drudge for all he's done and continues to do for the alternative press online. But Matt, dude, you've got to redesign your website, man. There is nothing user-friendly about your website and that is something that people are paying more and more attention to. If you're not even willing to update your site to make it easier to use for people then we, new-generation bloggers, are going to eat your lunch because we're offering the same links quicker than you are and are also offering pithy social commentary on top of that. It's about the Blog, the podcast and the VBlog today my friend--corporate radio supported by Interruption Marketing is the way of the past; we're not having it anymore.
You better keep your game tight, dude, or risk losing what you've built due to stubborness and arrogance.
Just a friendly service announcement--Internet Dude to Internet Dude.
Two nuns are ordered to paint a room in the convent, and the last instruction of the Mother Superior is that they must not get even a drop of paint on their habits.
After conferring about this for a while, the two nuns decide to lock the door of the room, strip off their habits, and paint in the nude. In the middle of the project, there comes a knock at the door.
Who is it?" calls out one of the nuns.
"Blind man," replies a voice from the other side of the door.
The two nuns look at each other and shrug, deciding that no harm can come from letting a blind man into the room; so they open the door.
"Nice Boobs," says the man. "Where do you want the blinds?"
Look, I'm no link whore. I don't want just any douche bag linking to my site but we're talking about AntiMedia here! First, let me explain the nature of Internet search engines and how Blogs are changing them. They used to be based on nebulous information like meta tags, keyword saturation and hyperlinks. Every time you post a blog with a "Permalink" for each entry, that essentially makes that entry its own web page which will have its own web ranking based on subject key words and the authority of the mother Blog.
Your Blog develops authority by linking to and being linked from other Blogs with similar content to yours (and this is the key). If I have a parenting Blog linking to a porno Blog--this is no good. But if you have one of the most important sources for alternative news in the Blogosphere (I'm speaking about AntiMedia here) linking to you and you link to him as often as your content allows (this is another key, linking beyond the subject of the content is pretty much interruption marketing but staying in the bounds of your content is in the land of Permission Marketing), then the search engines will recognize the beginnings of a social network and will eventually be feeding anyone interested in your subject-related keywords to you and your affiliates.
So, AntiMedia, I hope you're ready for the ride of your life because it's time to prove that the traditional media should soon be given the Schiavo option and be taken off life support. This is hyper-information at the speed of life, my friend.
Let's not forget that our purpose is to eventually move the fuck off this planet away from each other--we are inherent individuals for a reason and it's not to smell each other's putrid armpit stink. We need breeding room and Olympus Mons on Mars looks like a good spot to stake a claim for Rancho De Lo Minton!
I don't know why Karl Rove allows the President into these shark swimming sessions--this is Bush at his absolute worst. He is a man with a talent of making witty off-the-cuff remarks who has a public leash on him as far as what he can say. A guarded Bush is an an ineffective Bush.
He actually said the words, "We have to find those who seek to do harm to us and get them out of harm's way." What the fug? This is like interviewing Larry Holmes after a title fight. The President is too damned intelligent and talented to be made a fool of like this in public. Karl Rove should be playing more to Bush's strengths, like speaking in front of Congress.
Then again, perhaps this is one of Rove's concessions to keep the traditional media at least somewhat loyal; it does fit in with the philsophy of cultural hegemony. After all, a snake that is allowed to eat live mice might never know it is in a zoo cage for the rest of its life.
At first this seemed really harsh to me and then I remembered that this motherless fug attacked his own squad members in a battle situation. Now I say fry him.
...then you might like to hear me play. I always get so self-conscious playing around people, especially in front of dudes who are awesome at making music like my boys in Miranda Sound.
But I figured, fug it! Anyone who doesn't want to listen to it doesn't have to--that's the beauty of the Internet. So, if the spirit of revealing my complete lack of musical talent, I have recently posted two musical tracks on the Joshua Minton Podcast.
The first one is an acoustic version of War Pigs by Black Sabbath with a preface on why I am singing it despite the fact that I'm in support of the current War on Terror. I apologize beforehand for the microphone and my voice overloading it at points. Unfortunately, I'm no recording engineer either--we all work with what we've got, right?
The second JMPC (Joshua Minton Pod Cast or "Jump Pack") is just me noodling around on the guitar and talking about how I write songs and just generally exploring my complete lack of musical talent whatsoever
And as far as Miranda Sound goes, they can really just kiss my ass because I'm jealous as hell of what a fantastic band they are (Note to Billy, Dan, Scott and Dan) you're lucky I like you dickheads and want to see you succeed beyond your wildest dreams and beyond the corporate clutches you have so wisely managed to escape so far).
This post ifrom Mouth of the Brazos is too funny but here is the quote that prompted me to share this post:
"The world is eaten up with jackasses in charge. Any corporation, any organization, when it has grown too large, will percolate ass-kissers who don't actually have any capability beyond the pucker-factor and suck techniques (not to disparage those of you who actually have a pussy to use to obtain the same result) to the top. That's how we are in the state we are in, and why it continues to get worse. The path to power is permitting people to use any orifices in your body for their pleasure."
OK, I made up the part about smoking pot--but what will it hurt? You're forgetting shit anyway, right? Why not forget it in style?
Seriously, though; we should each be about finding the thing we love to do and focusing on that in order to be actively engaged in the moment instead of getting lost in the river of time (isn't this what alzheimer's is?)
I love David Duchovny--not in that way! But c'mon, the guy has a Masters Degree in Poetic Studies or something like that. He's got to be cool. Besides, he starred in The X-Files--it doesn't get cooler than that. Dave, I'll be checking in with you often.
Inspired by AntiMedia, I Wrote My Congressman About My Blog
by Uncle Josh
Hello Mr. [ENTER CONGRESSMAN'S NAME],
Congratulations on your recent political victory last November. I was one of the independent voters who helped elect you to public office. My name is Joshua Minton and I am President of an Internet Publishing Corporation.
Blogging is becoming a necessity of my operating any type of business on the Internet and has become an invaluable tool of corporate communication (both internal and external). I run five websites, three of them Blogs, and consider myself to be an Internet Communications master.
This communication is in regards to an event which recently happened to me as I was taking a picture of the snow that we recently received here in late April, indeed!
As a Blogger, I post many photos to my site, along with audio podcasts as well. So, I was going to snap a photo of a snowy parking lot to enhance my post about that evil snow and you can read about the specifics of the incident that occurred on my blog BOYS WEAR PANTS, MEN WEAR TROUSERS.
The end result is that the Internet should have a privacy measure in place legally to protect identifiable information, such as license plate numbers on cars in snowy parking lots and any portion of a stranger’s body that could possibly be identified (this measure would have to be clearly defined) from being distributed electronically.
Privacy is going to become the most valuable and scarce commodity the closer we each come to one social mind In America, the things that make each of us individuals cannot always be boiled down to numbers in a government or private database but some of the important things can.
Information theft on the Internet is already a serious privacy issue that intelligent people are moving to protect themselves against by purchasing Secure Digital Signatures and encrypting all of their attached e-mail files in every e-mail they send out. Likewise, they do not accept e-mail from anyone that has not digitally signed their e-mail and/or encrypted their files. Anyone that does not have a digital signature by the end of calendar year is putting themselves in as serious danger of information theft as the person who continues to have unprotected intercourse with multiple partners is of contracting HIV.
The least we can do as Bloggers (who should respect each other's right to privacy even if we don't respect our own) is to not put identifying information of strangers out there. In short, if it doesn't fit the subject of the Blog post crop it out before you post it.
This was the picture that I spoke of in my podcast the other day. It had snowed here in Ohio and I was pretty outraged so I did what any respecting Blogger would do--I grabbed my camera and was going to shoot that shitty white stuff.
This is the parking lot at the grocery we were at; I deliberately pulled into this pace because that snow had accumulated on that windshield would make a good picture. So this dude pulls in next to this car while I'm prepping the camera to take the picture and by the time he gets out, I'm snapping the picture and reviewing it on the LCD screen.
He shuts his door, looks up at me as I'm snapping the picture and obviously thinks I was taking a picture of him. So he gives me a punk look. Now here is where I had a choice--I could have rationally explained what I was doing to him and diffused the situation or I could have given him a punk look back. Guess which one I did?
He stood there and kept staring as I got into the car and I stared back at him through the windshield. At this point, he has given up on communiation of any kind--verbal or through the eyes (of which he had covered with dark sunglasses) and proceeds to cross around my vehicle to get my license plate number.
I was through with the whole drama and was out of the parking lot, nearly almost ran into him backing out now more for embarassment than any feint of macho display.
But the whole thing got me thinking about privacy in public. I mean, I would have been pissed had I seen someone that I thought was blatantly taking pictures of me possibly for malicious purpose.
The original picture, incidentally, does include a shot of his left hand.
So, I then did what comes natural to a writer--I posted the photo and was going to write about it when I realized that the photo was posted with the car's license plate number and this guy's left sleeve and hand. What right did I have to post any kind of identifying information onto my blog about them. And I don't, so that is why I went back in and cropped out any identifying information and reposted the photo with this Blog entry.
Privacy is going to become the most valuable and scarce commodity the closer we each come to one social mind. In America, the things that make each of us individuals cannot always be boiled down to numbers in a government or private database but some of the important things can.
Information theft on the Internet is going to become a serious issue in the future and one that intelligent people are moving to protect themselves against by purchasing Secure Digital Signatures and encrypting all of their attached files in every e-mail they send out. Likewise, they do not accept e-mail from anyone that has not digitally signed their e-mail and/or encrypted their files. Anyone that does not have a digital signature by the end of calendar year is putting themselves in as serious danger of information theft as the person who continues to have unprotected intercourse with multiple partners is of contracting HIV.
And the least we can do as Bloggers who rshould espect each other's right to privacy even if we don't respect our own, is to not put identifying information of strangers out there. In short, if it doesn't fit the subject of the Blog post crop it out before you post it.
You can hear the voicemail here. Snopes has filed this investigation under "Undetermined." I don't care if it's a prank or a hoax because it makes me laugh and this guy's play by play is pure comic genius--his laugh is absolutely infectious and the details that he uses to describe the scene paints a vivid picture in my mind to the point where it doesn't matter whether it actually happened or not--it's effing funny anyway!
It's kind of like that whole "Did Jesus actually ascend to heaven after being crucified"--looking at it like a historical event like that adds importance to it. The point is what are the implications of that metaphor in your life, you dig? Stop worshipping time like it's the ultimate commodity because I assure you that there are millions of bodies laying under cemetary headstones who would beg to differ with you if they could only speak our language anymore.
Alright, so here's the deal. If your store has a sign on the window that says "9:00 AM -9:00 PM" then you need to have the damn doors opened at 9:00 AM. I stood outside waiting for Trader Joe's to open for about five minutes. I knocked on the window and the door--finally, I pulled out my trusty 5.1 Megapixel and snapped this photo of their hours, thinking about writing a blistering Blog using my newly discovered Information Overlord powers when I got the idea of calling them.
"Hello, Trader Joe's"
"Yeah, are you guys open?"
"Yes, we are."
"Then can you come open the door, please? I've been standing out here
for ten minutes (a little embellishment is always good when filing a business
complaint)."
It turns out that the door just got stuck but it was still a negative customer experience and therefore qualifies for inclusion as just one of the moments of being stuck in Hell's Waiting Room.
This is fantastic and I love AntiMedia's work in continuing to bring news that always lets us know that we are still free individuals in a land of other free individuals.
Congress should be consulting with the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen of our society in order to get the best information, hear the best arguments and get input from the most people possible. Blogs are an absolutely perfect medium for that because the social connection is severed and only the ideas remain. Of course, there are a lot of egotistical bloggers out there who will no doubt get in their own way when developing their credibility onlline. Lucky for this country that AntiMedia is not such a person.
Here's a big hat tip to my brother AntiMedia (who I actually borrowed this phrase from).
Let's hope that Congressmen, Sentators, Judges and the President himself begin paying attention to their nation's experts instead of to the pathetic social lobbyist groups that have been running this country for far too long.
I am reticent to talk about my present company because of all the crap going on with "Work Bloggers" getting in trouble, etc. (I'm talking here specifically about that Delta airlines flight attendent who put lingerie shots of her wearing half of her uniform on her blog and got fired for it).
But I'm not hesitant to talk about the health care industry--which is fucked up as usual, just how Congress wants it. Of course they want it that way or why else would they continue to pass Draconian measures of economic sanctions and threats into legislation.
Listen, in five years there will be two health insurance companies in this country, my present company and their major competition. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing for Americans. The good thing will be that the competition between the two will yield more inclusive product packages across the board, meeting the majority of American's healthcare needs (at least the ones that can afford it still). But that also means that all the little guys have gone under.
Check out Ed Roman's rant about what happens when the little guys go under--he may be talking specifically about quality guitars but what he's saying is universal.
There is a fine balance when you start instituting rules in what should be a free market. But it is the Constitutionally mandated responsibility of the United States Federal Government to regulate the trade of commerce within its borders to ensure public safety. The line should be crossed with great care because Research and Development costs money and shareholders are ultimately concerned about the profitability of the companies that they invest in. Therefore, these drugs are being marketed as products using Interruption Marketingwhich not only costs the public in terms of time but also in terms of medical necessity. Let's face it, brand name advertisting has been so successful because it worked but people are getting weary of this type of advertisting anymore. I know that I have spent what seems like an enormous amount of money to shield myself from advertisting (using Tivo, spam filters, caller ID, etc.).
There is a difference between venture for profit and endangering the public's health by aritificially driving up the cost of administering healthcare (because valuable resources are not being allocated to their most efficient uses--this is because of the diversion of attention that the profit-driven pharmaceutical companies are injecting into the process of caring for patients medically).
In summary, there must be a line drawn in the sand between profit-venturing and what is best for the public's health; it is the United States Federal Government's responsibility to draw this line because they are Constitutionally charged with regulating the industry enough to protect the average citizen's life and not too much that it strangles and smothers the open exchange of goods, services and ideas.
This guy crossed it. Look, we are each free as individuals to pursue our own happiness providing that it does not infringe upon the lives or property of our fellow citizens. This Islamist professor, by encouraging impressionable youths to take up arms against Americans in the days following September 11, identified himself as an enemy of the people and I hope has ass rots in prison down in Guantanamo.
It is industry-wide ignorances such as this which allow pollution to occur. When the government uses its constitutionally mandated powers to regulate trade (INSTEAD OF TAXING IT) then the markets would be kept safe and our communities would look nicer. Instead, the government takes from those who earn and redistributes it to other avenues not necessarily in the individual's best interests--this is pure socialism and simply callling it representative democracy doesn't make it so. Don' get me started...
I wanted to introduce a new contributor here at BWP--Silent Rob. Rob and I are long-term associates who share a love of ideas and communication although we tend to talk over each other alot because the conversations get pretty deep.
Now Fantastic Bastard (another commentator I'm trying to snag), on the other hand, is pretty much just pissed off to have to talk about it but it's not in his nature to not say anything when he knows someone's just gone off the deep end of logic into La-La land (to which I make a point of visiting daily, by the way).
I need these two guys to ground the discussion and themes of this Blog. Silent Rob to suggest alternatives and help us all look a little deeper. He knows all about stats and charts and shit so I'm sure he'll bore us to tears with it as well as I'm sure that we'll each be better off for having paid attention to Silent Rob.
Fantastic Bastard, on the other hand, is my "Tell-It-Like-It-Is" guy. This is the guy who, with a smile, will tell you your arm was just severed off and chuckle to himself as you're scrambling to pick it back up.
The world needs more Silent Robs, Fantastic Bastards and even day-dreaming idiots like me--so start your own Blog but make sure you keep comin' back to where the real juice is--The Boys Wear Pants, Men Wear Trousers Blog brought to you by JoshuaMinton.com
I know that many of you that read this site do not receive my e-mail newsletter (which is free, by the way and you can sign up in the sidebar of this blog) the reference may be unfamiliar to you. But I assure you that Fantastic Bastard's demeanor of communication will be worth it even if you don't know what the hell is going on.
Here is his full response:
Screw it. I'm just sending it to you for now.
Here's the thing I told you I almost commented on the other day. I, literally, scoffed when I read this part of your e-mail:
"Regardless of who you are, if you don't have your own website, your own blog,
your own Podcasts and aren't posting articles online then you are missing the
boat."
Taking this in context, I have but one remark as rebuttal: Blow me. I don't have/do any of that shit but I still keep up on my game.
Also, as far as your notion of "The day of the individual artist holding the power of communicating to the world is at hand. The middlemen who have served as the filter for disseminating information are being displaced by the minute." I think that's bullshit too. If anything, the world is now more susceptible to being mislead by those in power through censorship or discrediting the individual. At the base level, you're talking about replacing the established media here. I knew this would be the topic you'd eventually take it to.
It is true that the individual has more power to disseminate his opinion now than ever but you're forgetting that SBC's phone lines, or Time Warner's cable connection, or Whoeverthefuck's whateverthefuck is still ALLOWING you to do so, through a service YOU PAY FOR! You hardly seem to be independent in this instance. And while you may be displacing the traditional middlemen, you're really just replacing them with servers and poorly educated, unrounded, overspecialized IT guys with some Microsoft training certificate from computertraining.com. The fact of the matter is that "They" are still going to find a way to limit what you say. The established system is established for a reason and that brings clout with it.
Moreover, you're failing to realize one key thing: the rest of the world is not like us. Shit, most of this country is not like us. And if you’re reading this, you've just been included in "us". There is a significant portion of the world that doesn't know what a webpage looks like, let alone even used a computer themselves. As crazy as that may sounds to you, my friend, AKA: "Technology Boy", it is true. Only a fraction of the world has an education over our 9th grade level. Of that fraction, only a fraction has completed a level of education equivalent to our high schools. That being said, let's not think that everyone is anywhere close to the educational prestige of our very own Silent Rob. All I'm getting at here is that it is impossible to overthrow an established, global system when only reaching less than 10% of its population.
Now getting back to my original point of this, in the eyes of most of the world, we are "The Man." You're not overthrowing The Man; this social theory merely tries to execute a coup through the displacement of the men in the middle. The media, be it the traditional concept of or your new vision of multiplatforming bloggers reporting on a borrowed network, is a relative thing. It is, and always will be, over the heads of most. It is, and always will be, informing, oppressing and empowering all at the same time. Tis the nature of the beast and something you will never change.
Man, I love talking about the Kennedy assasination, I really do. Because, to me, it's a great archetype example of how the totalitarian government, who rules this planet, partitions out information in such a way that we, the masses, are forced to base our conclusions on erroneous and false.... Oh, I'm sorry, wrong meeting. I thought this was the meeting at the docks.
Oh, one more thing I'd like to add... Remember that you're not allowed to base all the sources in your papers from the internet because not all the sources are credible. Just because you read it doesn't make it true... So disregard everything I just said.
There's a few minutes of your life you won't get back!
These televisions, while dropping rapidly in price, are still too frigging expensive for me right now. But believe me, it is at the top of frivolous purchases list.
I was just about to write a post about the Garden State Soundtrack but Shane Nickerson beat me to it. Oh well, it adds to the credibility of my recommendation.
This is one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a long time because all the songs, besides each sounding fantastic on its own, paint a mental and emotional picture of deep instrospection with hope for a better tomorrow. I highly recommend this album to anyone.
Does Seth Godin's Marketing Fundamentals Mean That Jesus Had the Right Message with the Wrong Approach?
by Uncle Josh
I'm reading Seth Godin's Permission Marketing and he brings up the difference between Interruption Marketing and Permission Marketing.
Interruption Marketing: When you interrupt people from what they are doing in order to ask them to pay attention to something else.
Permission Marketing: You build your product around a consumer base that is expressing a need and your product will attract attention
If you've read The Tipping Point then you already know that as soon as Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen get ahold of a good message, it can spark a social epidemic and change everything.
Paul Johnson, in A History of the American People, refers to the three times it has happened in American history as The Great Awakenings. Great Awakenings are periods of great social upheaval that are surpassed by spiritual awakening. These are points of significant sociological choice--even the smallest actions can have the greatest efffect. But Great Awakenings are not always good things because by this definition, a Great Awakening took place in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s; we know how this one ended.
If the right individuals are making the right choices at the right places in time during these critical periods of social evolution, humanity soars. But even if the right individuals are making the wrong choices at the right places in time it is essentially the same as if the wrong choices had been made all the time anyway--because the stakes are so high and the smallest actions carry the greatest repercussions.
But none of this stuff is new. These things have been said time and time before by many great religious leaders--but their approach has changed over time as well. It's like that haunting opening line in Pink Floyd's opus The Final Cut:
Tell me true, tell me why
was Jesus crucified.
Was it for this that Daddy died?
Was Jesus practicing interruption marketing at the wrong time in history? It was pretty dangerous for someone to upset a powerful political institution at a time of near revolt, especially when all you had to offer was the secret to spiritual and emotional freedom beyond the laws of man.
The economics and politics of man were and still are the primary focus of society and the spiritual and emotional needs of individuals are just now becoming to be realized as having enormous impact on the standard of living for the entire human species. Politics is beginning to yield and so is economics as the emotional and spiritual needs of the individual are helping to bring balance to the politics and economics that are still threatening to throw our entire species into a serious downhill evolutionary drop--possibly into the abyss.
It is the responsibility of the Strong-Willed Individual in this world to step up and do the right things at the right places in time. The reward for this is that the Strong-Willed Individual usually gets to live cushier existences with more ameneties. In my mind this is rightly so because they are Atlas holding the world in place instead of shrugging it off by making the wrong choices at the wrong or right places in time.
What I'm basically saying here is:
Conservatives are people motivated primarily by economics and politics.
Conservatives should berunning the government and must be able to balance individual emotional and spiritual concerns with the political and economic large scale repercussions of the Universal Sociological Maxim that seemingly small individual actions towards other individuals can render enormous social impact for the good or the bad. (e.g. The American Revolution vs. The Nazi twelve-year rule).
Liberals are people motivated primarily by emotion and spiritual concerns and who, realizing that economics and politicsare destroying the world, are lashing out against the conservatives who are barely holding things in place.
Liberals should be concentrating their efforts in the fields of education and art.
Liberals must NOT view education nor art through limited political and economic lenses.
The idea here is that those with only limited access to our world's valuable resources become inspired by liberal education and art so that the talented among them have the knowledge, experience and skill sets to be able to make the right choices at the right places in time and thereby raise the value of themselves, their friends and family, their country and all of humanity in the world's economic and political eyes.
If Jesus would have practiced Permission Marketing rather than Interruption Marketing, he probably wouldn't have gotten his ass killed:)
In this edition of the MintonCast podcast, I read the essay Ambition by Krishnamurti. I also talk about my near run in with a lunatic yesterday at the grocery, get into a little religion and why a democracy must maintain peace through strength and why it is a good thing that the US military is such a bad ass motha.
The "Angry at Star Wars Old Schoolers Who are Acting like Little Bitches" Blog Post
by Uncle Josh
Stop whining over the fact that the new episodes aren't the same as the old episodes. That's because Episode III is the seminal episode in the Star Wars series. Everything Lucas wrote Star Wars to convey will be revealed in this movie? It is an extremely simple yet elegant storyline that will become rich before your eyes. For example, did you know that it was Yoda's arrogance which caused the destruction of the Republic and allowed Darth Sidious to come to power as Emperor Palpatine? I would apologize for spoiling the ending but get over it because it's more important to me that you understand what's going than be surprised by it. How old are you anyway, seven?
This came out of an article I was writing. I figure a blog is the perfect place to store these digressions that don't seem to fit anywhere else. Maybe someone else can pick the idea up and run with it, get it answered.
LEGAL DIGRESSION: I assume that if something has been sent over e-mail and has been forwarded thousands of times, providing that one saves the e-mail to prove it's been forwarded to them means the information particle iis pretty much public domain; and therefore, broadcasting it on one's podcast is acceptable because it's easier for others to access. This way, instead of sending out mass e-mails, clogging up servers and generally spamming up the place, you are providing those interested in your information an easy way they can have it pulled to them instead of you having to do all the pushing.
Here's a little tip to brick and mortar businesses. If you see this phenomenon happening in your parking lots--put a cart corrale there. Find out what people are doing naturally and help them do it easier and you will be rewarded with repeat business for the rest of your corporate life.
Here is the link to listen to the full exchange. I am so appreciative of Glenn Beck nailing this ass to the wall on this interview. The conservative population have been putting up with this fool for the past several years. We have been subject to the power influence of a pathetic career politician whose leadership is founded upon victimazation and ignorance. This man, regardless of his race, color or religious affiliation, is a prime example of the worst that America has to offer--politicians that maintain political power by dividing people into groups and mentally herding them like cattle. Bullshit! I am so very pleased to see this guy go down in flames--thank you Mr. Beck. Danka. Xie Xie. Gracias, etc. etc.
Bill Hicks once said that the Rockers who did commercials against drug use were "ball-less, soul-less, spirit-less corporate little bitches--suckers of Satan's cock, every one." I guess the Satan being referred to in this litany of profanity that rings as true as child's triangle being struck would be the corporate influence on American popular culture.
The RIAA is an organization defending an Empire that is burning to the ground by the minute. The most egregious lie ever perpetrated on American popular culture is that music is a commodity to be bought and sold. No, music is to be shared--the performance of music is what should be bought and sold.
But here is the crux of the problem because most musicians, and artists in general, are so utterly ignorant of even the most basic marketing techniques that they end up selling what they should be giving away and giving away what they should be selling. Hence, many musicians are taken advantage of by unscrupulous promoters, managers, publishing companies and, yes, the RIAA.
Authors are the same way. Here's a little secret the publishing companies aren't going to tell you--books and albums are front end products, they are bait to draw people into your marketing funnel. Books and albums should be broken into pieces (articles/chapters and songs) and given away to build buzz, eventually sold for a nominal price and then information gets collected about the purchasers so the author/artist/band can keep in touch with them to sell them into concerts, phone calls, presentations, CDs, DVDs, etc.--all the while by-passing the conglomerate middlemen and keeping the maximum amount of profiting for themselves.
I'm not just telling you that this is what will happen; I'm telling you this is what is happening. The corporate influence on art has already passed its pinnacle and is on a flaming decline. The artists and authors who stand ready to help themselves the time it hits rock bottom will profit the most and be privileged enough to share their artistic vision with a world desperately in need of it.
I plan on being there to help them so they don't have to suck on Satan's pecker any more.
Forbes.com presents a very interesting analysis of CEOs across the major Fortune 500 corporations. As a economic group, CEOs had salary raises of 54% on average last years--do they deserve it or are they bilking their own companies out of millions that should be going back into R&D and paying quality people more to stay longer?
Do you think that a study about the size of Asian men's penises conducted by Asian men might have a possibility of being biased on the outcome? Not that I'm going to volunteer to measure or anything because I don't really care but that brings us to the crux of the matter doesn't it because really does care? Asian men and Asian women, that's who--that's why they're the ones measuring. OK...circular logic attack...
All the rage is on creating commercial spacecraft for human travel into space. Well, why don't we also focus on creating interplanetary garbage shuttles that can take all this non-biodegradable waste and dump it onto the surface of Venus? Venus has an atmosphere many times the pressure of the Earth's surface and it rains Sulfuric Acid all day long on Venus--that would probably go a long way to decomposing this supposedly non-biodegradable waste. I think it's a great idea but who listens to me?
Competition in most realms is a good thing--but then there are also economies of scale to consider. Here's a good definition of Economies of Scale from Michael Novak
Economies of scale lead nations to trade, too, inasmuch as some countries are so small that their internal market cannot support production that requires large expenditures of capital or labor, unless they find partners whose needs complement their own.
There are some brilliant ideas out there as far as information storage and presentation medium but only one major one will catch on because it has to. There can be different brands with different attributes but they must still work within the same fundamental operating structure. Consider cassette tapes and the different types there were--chrome, metal, etc.--but every one of them played in a standard tape player.
Does it bother anyone else that the AP doesn't always identify their writers? Reading these articles written by "unidentified" authors as if they were experts is like being blindfolded in a doctor's office and just assuming that the person telling you to turn your head and cough is a trained doctor.
This service wouldn't be that beneficial to some people. Some of the search terms that people use are downright scary. The other day, this page was picked up by a search term for "Asian boys masturbating in piss stained underwear." WTF??? There are some sick pricks out there.
You'd have figured the Egyptians would have made it easy on us and just have all piled into the Great Pyramid, shut the doors and made it all one big tomb--it is, after all, The Great Pyramid!
Robin Good brings up a very interesting point in his post. Isn't it amazing that we are told again and again growing up that banks are the "safe" place to keep our money, yet the return on investment is pitiful--4% if you're lucky. So, what do banks do with that money? They turn around and give us credit cards and charge us 20% on the money. Let's see...20%-4%=16%. Banks are making 16% off our money despite the fact that they are using it as collateral to lend to other people. But if what Robin Good brings up in this article is true, they could just be making the money up out of thin air, which if deemed to be counterfeiting could break the entire loan/finance industry worldwide adn coudl send us spiraling into a serious recession. Of course, I'm no economist so anyone who knows more than I do, feel free to post a comment and enlighten us all.
This author tries to imply that owning a home means that one is wealthy. The truth is that I've lived in apartments that were more expensive than most home mortages. Purchasing a home or real estate is an act that helps solidify community and social structure. I plan on making real estate investing one of the pillars of my economic security and I will be relying on the home mortgage deduction to help shield me from ridiculous taxes because that is the way of economically intelligent Americans. The home mortage deduction has been around since the beginnig of income tax itself and if I have my way, it will last just as long. You've got to learn the rules so you can bend them in your favor.
I know someone who recently bought about ten bootlegged movies out of the trunk of some dude's car. He said that the quality was pretty good and that you could barely tell a difference between the recording and a real movie. But I say, is it really worth it for these guys to risk going to jail in order to hawk a first run movies for $10? It seems like a lot of trouble to me with far too much risk.
It amazes me how much has been allocated, in terms of time and resources, towards understanding what happened milliseconds after the birth of matter, more commonly known as "The Big Bang. I have been following cosmology religiously for over a decade now and even back then the questions and rigorous study were aimed at these small moments in time. It is one of those inverse relationships where the stakes are so high and the questions are so large that they seem to dwarf the things that really matter in the mundane moments we spend with our own loved ones. I just hope these cosmologists make it home each night to eat dinner with their families because those are the seconds that truly matter most.
The nomenclature here is the biggest part of the problem. Pot is not a drug--it's an ERRB, man! And nobody wants to indulge in marijuana as a breath spray--we are human beings and we smoke pot. It's called a blunt, not Binaca! The transition of pot from ERRB to drug is what allowed it to be outlawed by the Tobacco lobbyists and pathetic and paranoid congressmen who saw a generation of young men and women turning away from traditional values (which is what any self-respecting American is required by birthright to do--I mean, that is how our country was founded after all). Anyway, don't get me started...
I posted about this yesterday but I wanted to follow up now that more substance has been released regarding the new food dietary guide. It seems that the biggest shift will occur as the guide switches from the nebulous "portions" to actual ounces and cups. I will be reviewing this guide over the weeks to come and may post about it again.
This is unreal...we are witnessing the beginning of a Tipping Point--the Temple is Flipping.
"NYTimes.com's RSS feeds generated 5.9 million pageviews on the site in March, which represents a 342% increase year over year and a 39% increase from February's 4.3 million pageviews. The sections that were most popular among RSS feeds included: Washington and Business. The feeds have been available since February 2002."
Despite Bush administration claims to support religious diversity and "Faith-Based" initiatives, the administration is urging the New Mexico Supreme Court to ban the use of a "religious" tea in a South American church ceremony on the grounds that it violates the Narcotics laws of America. Hey, here's a newsflash--the narcotics laws of America suck!!! They don't work to curb drug use and, in fact, encourage it in some cases. They have led to overfilled prison populations that unjustly come down harder on minorities for trafficking in substances that people want and could responsibly use without harming other people or their property. This could all happen with the assistance of a government dedicated to protecting the inalienable right of the freedom to pursue happiness in whatever form provided that it does not infringe upon the lives or property of other citizens (i.e. not getting behind the wheel when you're stoned out of your mind).
Someday, sometime--our government (meaning we the People) is going to have an enormous wake-up call because it is an outright travesty that the prisons of this country are overflowing with individuals trying to put bread on their tables when many seats in Congress and big fluffy chairs in boardrooms of major corporations are filled with outright criminals.
This should be very interesting because of the dichotomy of dietary regimes out there. I made prediction a couple of years back that in light of the Atkins craze, the government would be forced to revise the food pyramid and that doing so, they would open themselves up to all kinds of lawsuits that will have enormous reprications economically. Consider that if the government acknowledges that it has pushed the wrong food choices on people that could result in a higher level of obesity in the greater population (exactly what we see) then Medicare may be forced to cover radical procedures like gastric bypasses and pay for dietary counseling, etc. This could have an impact of billions of dollars on our economy. Watch closely.
I've gotten a few e-mails and a sheitte load of traffic (thanks to Shane). So, anyone further interested in why this Parsley character is a dangerous lunatic can check out this great treatise written by G. Richard Fisher. Thanks to all Americans concerned with keeping spiritual enlightenment harnessed at the level of the individual instead of the mob.
This was an audio e-mail that I received and had to pass along:
On a recent Spurs trip, we were asking one of our sponsors who works at Jack in the Box some funny stories or experiences with the company. The funniest story he had was when an operations manager was late for a meeting and called his boss to tell him he was running late. As he was leaving the voice mail message, he witnessed an accident and went on to provide "play by play" of the incident.
After telling us the story, he promised to send us a copy of the voice mail and here it is. This is the actual voice mail message. It was passed along and forwarded so many times within Jack in the Box, it crashed their voice mail server. "
Josh reads an essay titled "I Have a Right" from the book Cliches of Politics. He discusses his college television watching schedule, the Sesame Street part of the book The Tipping Point and how it applies to his work methodology and what happens to you when you watch seven straight seasons of the show Friends in a row. (16:57)
This is too funny! If you're campaigning for a cause, I'm not interested. I'm interested in people who have ideas and not ideas that need people. Take your causes, sell advertisting space on them and whore them out to Hollywood--they'll get no play here. Wet losers.
There are many American Indians that fanatically deny genetic links to Asian people and the whole "migration" across the Beiring straits theory because they are reticent to give up status as indigenous peoples. This study should clear that up if it is successful.
Josh discusses his interview with a Country Club, pro lifers who murder people, the problem with religion and getting back in touch with an old friend.
Story Link
I'm sorry guys, but I just have a conspiratorial mind and this seems like a pretty easy "cover story." Oh, whoops--we accidentally released a killer flu virus that has been stored for four decades. A likely story!
Someone mentioned in passing to me the other day that they thought this lady brought the finger with her and put it in here mouth. Word has it that she is a very litigious person with a string of lawsuits behind her. If she did this, she should be prosecuted and thrown in prison--immediately.
Robin Goode is the man! I've been saying that the digital distribution of filming is the answer to bypassing the BS middlemen and marketing eggheads that have been holding back the free exchange of goods and services in this country for fifty years. Imagine one days receiving movie trailers via RSS and taking place in movie surveys from your home computer--that day is coming.
I love anything to do with Colonial Virginia. I WILL one day own a vacation home in Williamsburg--"Write it down, take a picture--I don't give a $#%&."
This is just pathetic. If you ever needed proof of the downfall of the Information Czars, here it is. Trying to tie the death of animals in with anti-war rhetoric against US forces is the lowest of the low. MSM deserves exactly what's going to happen to it in the next ten years.
I used to love searching Lexis Nexus when I worked as an Information Desk Assistant at the BGSU library. This is too bad because they really are a great source of information.
Nanotechnology is perhaps one of the most exciting fields of scientific study out there today. This, combine with the great leaps in our knowledge of genetic biology is going to improve the lives of every human being on this planet. These are the areas we should focusing our resources towards...after murdering third world dictators and securing their oil supplies, of course.
This article hit on a topic that I think traditional religions are scared to embrace. What happens when freedom of choice infects spirituality? I feel a longer blog coming on about this...more to come.
I consider myself pretty up-to-date on major scientific theories and discoveries but this is the first time I've heard of this hypothesis. I find it to be pretty plausible though and I am looking forward to see what comes from it.
This week's Podcast is actually a class that I took last week on Information Entrepreunering (Infopreunering). The class, which is through the Enlightened Millionaire Institute and was taught by Joyce Belle Edelbrock, ended up being a one on one discussion between she and I about Information Marketing on the Internet and even drifted into the spiritual and social.
This "self-made millionaire" DB got arrested in Vegas while verbally abusing staff over a $20 cover charge. This guy is a heart attack waiting to happen at 32.
This is a really interesting post by Seth Godin (author of "Unleashing the IdeaVirus") abou the cultural disparity between the leaders and consitutuents of the Catholic Church. Very interesting--I don't think they'd make it past a politically correct review board.
When I think about the recent anti-spam legislation that was passed by Congress it kind of makes me upset that the same thing isn't being done to television commercials. I mean, aren't they spam that interrupts our television shows? Besides, only morons and half-wit corporations who have lost the ability to think outside the box practice brand marketing anyway.
This is craziness. These groundbased telescopes will have 40 times the sharpness that the Hubble has (Hubble is getting pretty old anymore) and will ten times the size. Awesome!
I found this fascinating as for the past ten years have been practicing herbal medicine supplements. They have improved my life in many ways and I fully support individuals educating themselves to enhance their lives.
Alright, look--I thought about getting a PSP; I truly did. But when I looked at it and realized that it was the same graphics and games as the PS2 just mobile--I thought, "I've got a laptop PC. Why in the world would I need a mobile gaming system?" Hell, I rarely even play my video games now since I've been working so hard these past few months. It just didn't seem worth it to me. However, I will make a concession when Star Wars Episode III comes out for PS2--that game will be killer. Don't believe me? Check it out here.
This is absolute BS. Anyone with any sense knows that colleges are a consortium of beauracratic incompetence as a general rule but this has strayed into the criminal. Heads should roll over this!
This is a very interesting article about how some people are creatively handling the higher cost of healthcare. Not necessarily recommended but what can you do? Well, the healthcare industry is the next temple I plan on flipping as soon as I'm done with the information industry.
We are witnessing the birth of Democratic Entertainment. I would absolutely pay $8 a month for this service. Fantastic idea--it's about time these idiot record companies and television studios came around.
I'm really pulling for Jennings here. Even though I fiind him to be liberally biased, he has a great voice. I absolutely loved his narration in the History Channel's video series of "The American Century." Here's good thoughts for your health Peter.
This is so effing cool! When I was an undergrad, I minored in Cultural Cosmology which basically jammed all my Astronomy courses together will all my History, Sociology and Philosophy courses into a made up minor. But even six years ago, it was just a matter of time before we captured physical images of another planet outside our own solar system. Well, the wait is over--here it is. This is very exciting stuff!
You know what Guitar Center Superstores are good for? Testing out equipment--and that's it. Buy your strings and instruments from the small stores or order them over the Internet. Here is a great article that talks about it.
I came across this joke while researching Paul Reed Smith guitars (my 30th birthday present).
"A dedicated Teamsters union worker was attending a convention in Las Vegas and, as you would expect, decided to check out the brothels nearby.
When he got to the first one, he asked the Madam, 'Is this a union house?'
'No,' she replied. 'I'm sorry, it isn't.'
'Well, if I pay you $100.00, what cut do the
girls get?'
'The house gets $80.00 and the girls get $20.00.'
Mightily offended at such unfair dealings, the man stomped off down the street in search of a more equitable, hopefully unionized shop.
His search continued until finally he reached a brothel where the Madam responded, 'Why, yes, sir, this IS
a Union House.'
The man asked, 'And if I pay you $100.00, what cut do the
girls get?'
'The girls get $80.00 and the house gets $20.00.'
'That's more like it!' the union man said. So he handed the Madam $100.00, looked around the room and pointed to a stunningly attractive blonde. 'I'd like her for the
night.'
'Sorry, sir,' said the Madam, gesturing towards an 85-year old woman in the corner, 'Ethel here has seniority.'"
I'm sorry to say that I'm not surprised by the student and faculty response to David Horowitz (a former white man who was down with the black panthers who turned into an ultra-conservative). I always thought it was abominable that a University have a designated free speech zone in front of the Union. I wonder if that is still there? Next time I'm in BG, I'll have to check that out.
Anyway, for a couple of years I performed an experiment on my associates and close friends. I became ultra political (and ultra-Libertarian meaning I was farther to the right than George Bush--somewhere between Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry). I pissed a lot of my so-called friends off and those people barely speak to me anymore. Fine. Good riddance. If you wouldn't be friends with me because our beliefs are different then we were never friends in the first place.
The whole experiment was actually a character study for a protagonist in a story that requires a great deal of research and polemic but it had t he bonus of allowing to carve out the weak-minded shitheels out of my life who were only hanging around me for god knows what reason anyway. My true friends shook their heads, told me I was effing crazy and asked me when we were going to get together again. I love them for it and will stay true to those people.
It seems to me that the ones clamoring loudest for us all to have open minds are the ones with a spring-loaded trap in their heads that snaps shut at the slightest sign of disturbance. Petty bastards.
